Happy Tuesday

[susandennis]

I really got nothin'. And I'm not kidding this time.

Mom is the same. She is learning, however. Between nearby construction and frequent thunderstorms, her cable goes out a lot. Last time she cleaned out her TiVo totally. "We're supposed to get thunderstorms tonight and I'm sure the cable will go out again so I've got TiVo working at top speed." She gets such a kick out of watching TiVo when the cable is out and everyone else is dead in the water, TV wise.

The football game was quite loud last night. It was kind of fun background noise. Sorry about the score. This is when we say 'oh, it was just an exhibition game.'

Roomba brought me another dime last night. It picked up one last week, too. I think it's paying itself off. And I think I must have a hole in some pocket somewhere.

It is cooler. And I think it's headed that way for good. Even the TV weather people are backing down from their love of the hotter the better. They are now referring to temperatures are 'relief'. Why do I insist on watching these people?

The shelf guy left me a note last week that he would be working on the shelves for three days this week and after that he should be close to finishing. I'm trying to stay Zen about this but it's not easy. If he or Sheri tell me one more time that they 'can't wait until the shelves are done!', I'm not responsible for any bodily injury. On the up side, Sheri is out of town until Thursday or Friday so she could be safe.

Sunday I sent email to the place where I bought the printer - www.techforless.com. Yesterday I got a reply from a guy who said I would hear from someone within 24 hours. Last night I got a note from another guy asking me for some details on the problem and telling me that he was testing out a replacement unit for me. Both notes sounded suspiciously like they were from actual real people. I did a quick check on some of the review sites and discovered that this outfit has some mighty satisfied customers.

I'm reading Blink which talks about a study done on surgeons and being sued. The study found that the number of law suits filed against surgeons had little to do with their skill or any errors. The group that got sued less often had as many errors. It was all about how the surgeons treated the patients and their families. Those who appeared to care did not get sued.

I think that may be what techforless is up to and it's working with me. I'm not unhappy with my purchase or the fact that I do not have a working printer or the fact that I don't even have a resolution from them about what's going to make me whole on the problem and it's been nearly a day and a half that they have known about the problem. Interesting.

Comments

[geordie.livejournal.com]

Your printer experience is why I don't do hardware. But then my last USB problem was correctly, though catastrophically, diagnosed and fixed. I could have bought a Dell for the price of keeping my machine going for the last month. I have a spare USB 2.0 card, if I was close I'd bring it round, it was only about $20. This plug and play stuff is all too "as if by magic" to me, it relies on layers of driver software saying "Oh look! A printer!" and I just don't have that much faith in other people's software ;-)

[susandennis]

I totally agree... I have two PCI cards of four USB ports each (one 2.0, one old). I have four USB ports on the back of the machine and 2 on the front. I have four USB ports on the monitor (one of which is dead).

I am currently down to the following USB connections:

2 external drives
1 keyboard/mouse wireless thingie
1 monitor hub
1 camera charging stand
3 web cams

So... 17 working USB ports. 8 USB devices. It's madness.

And don't even get me started on the fucking connectors. The idiot who decided on the current female/male configuration of the plugs and receptors should be drawn and quartered and his (and, yeah, I'm thinking it was a man) bits be set out for the ants.

[geordie.livejournal.com]

All that questionable USB stuff. So what's up with the connectors? Almost certainly a male design. I'd have flared the sockets a touch, they are too hard to fit together 'blind'. The squarish B connectors seem to work better. This is the problem of having stuff designed by a committee that has a particular remit, cheap and simple were way high on the list of requirements.

I have to admit that with the new motherboard and the old software everything seems to be more reliable, so I think Chaintech may have been responsible for some of my questionable USB experiences.

[mtnkodiak.livejournal.com]

I read your journal via a friends-of-friends page, and noticed a while back that you got a roomba. I never knew anyone that actually got one-- do you think it's worth it? Any regrets or drawbacks?

[susandennis]

Hi! Welcome!! Any friend of...

And, yes, I have a Roomba. I've only had it about a week so my findings are preliminary. But, so far, I'm one happy camper. (Especially now that it's finding cash!)

I have a 1,200 sq foot condo - it's kind of divided into rooms but really more open than not. Wall to wall carpeting except the bathrooms and the kitchen all of which have rugs. The full bath has those rubber backed Linens N' Things rugs and Roomba does NOT like those so I keep it out of that bathroom. The other bathroom and the kitchen have rugs that are basically same as the rest of the house just bound and on non slip mats. Roomba just acts like they are all part of the floor.

Sadly, my two cats are not that interested. I was really looking forward to their thinking this was a giant cat toy. They just kind of look at it and move away.

My carpet is dark and not a solid color - you can see pictures of it here (http://www.susandennis.org/makeover/index.htm#May_14). I don't know how effective Roomba would do, for instance, on a cream colored medium pile carpet. But, it does great on mine.

I've gotten so I run it every couple of days. Usually, I'll do half the house - back half one day, front half the next day. When it's finished, I spend about 5 minutes or cleaning the brushs and under carriage.

Zero regrets. I have a cordless Dirt Devil for touch ups and unless something happens, I am giving away the old Hoover next week.

Questions? Feel free to ask.

[mtnkodiak.livejournal.com]

Sounds great. Glad you are happy with it... Both my partner and I loathe vacuuming, so our carpet gets to the point where it needs steam cleaning more often than I think they should. We're bad that way.

You have piqued my interest enough that I will head out to their website and look up the particulars (how to adjust for diff piles, what it can/can't do, etc). I suspect that there have been some improvements since I last looked into them a few years ago.

Thanks for the info! And your renovations look marvelous. I like your design choices.

[susandennis]

Thank you.

You guys cannot hate vacuuming more than I do. My old carpet was so digusting that when the carpet guys were there to rip it out, I told them that I had had renters (seriously!).

There is one Yahoo group (which is monitored by the irobots people):

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roomba-users/

And two forums:

http://www.roombacommunity.com/forum/

and

The chat room at http://www.roombareview.com/ (if you get serious, you might want to consult this running thread about best prices http://www.roombareview.com/chat/viewtopic.php?t=5&sid=0ce8a0339f627750a03588881ade2149)

[mtnkodiak.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Thanks for the infos.

I just read your "who's who" page... and you used to live in Rochester, MN? That's my hometown!

And that does it: I'm friendin' ya. :)

[susandennis]

Really? Rochester? Your family IBM or the Clinic???

[mtnkodiak.livejournal.com]

Hehehe... you sure know Rochester, all right.

We're a Clinic family. My dad was a medical photographer for the Clinic for many many years. My sister lives in Pine Island MN, and also works at the Clinic (as do two of her daughters). My brother's the artistic type and never succumbed to the lure of the Clinic (or IBM), and instead gets to work retail until he gets The Big Break on his book du jour (he lives in Key West).

I did work at the Rochester IBM as a contractor for about 5 years though, but truth be told I would have rather worked at the Clinic. I would like my next job to be something related to the medical field... but fairly removed since I'm way more into geeky-techy stuff than mushy-body stuff.

[susandennis]

That's wild. Rochester was the first place I ever lived outside of the eastern time zone and I was fascinated by it. I loved the snow - every single solitary flake. I only lived there 18 months but I did manage to span it over two winters.

It never failed to crack me up... Sit in the chair to get your hair cut and the first thing the stylist said was 'Clinic or IBM?'

Besides, the snow, however, the other most wonderful memory of the place was the people. I was astounded by how nice and respectful (both self and others) everyone was. I remember shopping at grocery stores and Target and going through Hardees drive through - everyone took such pride in doing things right. It was a wonderful and valuable lesson that I keep today.

I'm delighted to meet you, new friend!

[mtnkodiak.livejournal.com]

Yes, Rochester is a very "nice" place. Quite white-collar and quite... well, straight. Although: I hear they actually have a Pride celebration now, and I think I saw somewhere that there is a small "bear group" that meets for breakfast weekly. Ah, progress!

My Mom still lives there (retired from the public school system) so I visit there around once a year or so.

I am pleased to meet you, as well!